BARROW SUMMER ICE SHOW

The temporary bigtop-style stadium and ice rink will be constructed at Sandy Gap to play host to 10 days of live performances.

Touring production company Fairytales On Ice will be bringing its new show, Sleeping Beauty, to South Cumbria in July and August.

With more than 70 years of experience presenting premier ice shows worldwide and traditional pantomimes across the UK, the company has decided to take the show on the road.

The crew heads up the east coast of England and Scotland in the spring and then back down the west to Walney between July 31 and August 9.

Tour director Catherine Enos said she was looking forward to bringing the show to areas that are often overlooked in favour of the larger cities.

She said: “We are able as a complete mobile stadium to bring our show further afield than the big city centre arenas and we are very excited to visit Cumbria next year.

“We hope to create in our bigtop a magical ice palace and our international cast of skating stars will tell the story of Sleeping Beauty.

“This particular event is a new project for us and the first touring show we’ve done, but we have years of experience working with Disney On Ice and Holiday On Ice shows, and a producer, David Lee, that’s been doing pantos for the last 25 years.”

There are 17 performances scheduled while the production is on Walney, with local children being invited to take a small part in the show each evening.

The arena itself – which will have around double the number of seats of Barrow AFC’s Holker Street stadium – has already been used in Liverpool and Norwich, as well as South America and Taipei, and the show will also be performed in the Middle East next year.

Miss Enos has worked in the area having helped to bring Circus Vegas to Sandy Gap in 2011.

She said: “We had a really good response for the circus so it was somewhere I was keen to come back to.

“My friend’s dad was from Millom, so we visited the area as a child on holiday, so I’m familiar with the area.